Metal wall for railway-cars.



W. T. VAN DORN.

METAL WALL FOR RAILWAY CARS.

APPLlCATlON FILED FEB. 20. 1915.

1 ,203,81 9. Patented Nov. 7', 1916.

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METAL WALL FOR RAILWAY-CARS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 7, 1916.

Application filed February 20, 1915. Serial No. 9,516.

To all whom it may concern 'Be it known that I, WILLIAM T. VAN DoRN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, county of Cook, State of Illinois,-have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Metal Walls for Railway-Cars, and declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it pertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, which form a part of this specification.

The present invention relates to metal sheets adapted particularly to form the ends or sides of railway cars and has for its object to produce a novel construction and arrangement of corrugations which will make the sheets strong and rigid in all directions and, where used to form the ends or sides of railway cars, will make it possible to secure maximum interior clearance and dimensions in a car body having minimum exterior dimensions.

A further object of my invention is to corrugate a sheet of metal in such a way that it will contain a maximum area of corrugations within a flat marginal edge without weakening the sheet by unduly stretching portions thereof.

The various features of novelty whereby my invention is characterized will hereinafter be pointed out with particularity in the claims; but, for a full understanding of my invention and of its objects and advantages, reference may be had to the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Figure l is an elevation of a sheet made in accordance with the present invention and adapted to be employed as the lower of two sheets forming the end of a railway car; Fig. 2 is a section taken approximately on line 2-2 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a section taken approximately on line 3-3 of Fig. 1; and Fig. 4 is a section taken approximately on line 4--4 of Fig. 1.

y In carrying out my invention I take a flat sheet of metal, 1, and corrugate it along parallel lines so as to leave a fiat marginal edge, 2, bounding a fully corrugated area. Each sheet is preferably made rectangular and the corrugations preferably extend parallel' with the axes thereof, the bulk of the corrugations being parallel with the long axis and extending almost the whole length of the sheet, while a few additional corrugations extending transversely of the others just within the flat marginal edges at the ends are provided to secure transverse stiffness. The corrugations are formed by displacing the metal in opposite directions from the plane of the sheet in its original state, this plane being preserved and defined by the aforesaid flat marginal edges which serve as the supporting points for the sheet. Consequently the corrugations extend in opposite directions from the plane of the supporting points so that half of the overall thickness projects outwardly and the other half inwardly from the plane of the posts or the like to which a sheet is attached to form a wall. The inwardly projecting corrugations, 3, alternate with the outwardly projecting corrugations, 4. I prefer, also, to increase the depth of the corrugations of both series from the ends toward the middle.

In order to secure transverse rigidity I employ afew transverse corrugations, 5, which lie close to the ends of the corrugations 3 and 4 and connect the ends of the outermost corrugations so as to form a frame inclosing the remaining corrugations.-

I have found that there is danger of weakening the sheet by reason of undue stretching of the material where the ends of a group of corrugations such as the groups 3 and 4 are in alinement with each other and I have therefore so proportioned and dlsposed the corrugations 3 and 4 that the corrugations at each end of the sheet have the appearance of being long and short corrugations alternating with each other. In fact, the corrugations of one group, namely the group 3, may be shorter than those of the other group so that the ends of the corrugations 4 project somewhat beyond the ends of the corrugations 3. With this arrangement the fiat edge portions of the sheet along the ends of the corrugations do not merge abruptly into the ends of all of the corrugations, but the merging 1s accomplished in two steps, thus facilitating the pressing of the sheet to give it 1ts corrugated form and at the same tlme leaving the sheet much stronger at the juncture between the ends of the corrugations and the flat supporting edges than would otherwise be possible.

WVhile I have illustrated and described with particularity only a single preferred form of my invention, I do not desire to be nitions of my invention constituting the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A metal sheet of the character described, provided with a series of parallel corrugations extending nearly across the same, the corrugations being arranged in two groups alternating with each other, the corrugations of one group being longer than those of the other group and projecting somewhat beyond each end of the latter, and the corrugations of one group extending inwardly from the plane of the edges of the sheet and the corrugations of the other group extending outwardly from said plane.

2. A metal sheet of the character described, provided with a series of parallel corrugations extending nearly across the same, the corrugations being arranged in two groups alternating with each other, the corrugations of one group being longer than those of the other group and projecting somewhat beyond each end of the latter, the corrugations of one group extending inwardly from the plane of the edges of the sheet and the corrugations of the other group extending outwardly from said plane, and transverse corrugations extending between and connected to the outermost corrugations and forming with the same a frame inclosing the remaining corrugations.

3. A metal sheet of the character described, provided with a series of parallel corrugations extending nearly across the same, half of the corrugations at each end extending somewhat beyond the others and alternating therewith, and transverse corrugations extending across the sheet in close proximity to the aforesaid corrugations and forming with the two outermost of the aforesaid corrugations a frame inclosing the remaining corrugations.

4. A metal sheet of the character described having a continuous corrugation extending around the same just within the edges thereof, the space within the frame being filled with parallel corrugations, the ends of half of which extend into close proximity to the end members of said frame while the other half of the corrugations alternating with the remainder have their ends terminatingat a somewhat greater distance from the said end members of the.

frame. I

5. A metal sheet of the character described, having a continuous corrugation arranged just within the edges thereof and forming a frame-like member, the space within said frame-like member being completely filled with corrugations lying parallel with one of the edges of the sheet and extending at their ends into close proximity to the end of the frame-like corrugation.

In testimony whereof, I sign this specification in the presence of two witnesses.

WILLIAM T..VAN DORN.

Witnesses:

WM. F. FREUDENREICH, RUTH E. ZETTERVALL. 

